Children at Risk Program
“Our main goal is to see children living in healthy families where they can reach their potential in all areas social, physical, mental and spiritual.”
The Children at Risk program seeks to restore hope and provide opportunities for a future for children with disabilities. Our main goal is to see children living in healthy families where they can reach their potential in all areas—social, physical, mental, and spiritual. Through therapy, training, and resources, we aim to prevent these children with special needs from ending up on the street or in institutions. We give children and families the tools they need to overcome obstacles and live fruitful and productive lives. Working together with local partners, we empower, encourage, and help provide opportunities for a better future for these children!
Projects
Mobility Project
Physical therapy and occupational therapy do not exist as disciplines in this part of the world. CDI brings therapists from outside to work with children with special needs in homes and institutions. These therapists also train caregivers in the basics of physical and occupational therapy so that more children have opportunities to develop their full capacity of mobility, leading to greater independence and hope for the future.
Inclusive Education Project
Until recently the nation of Kyrgyzstan provided no education for children with special needs. Our education project stepped into that void, helping children in institutions to learn basic academics as well as life skills and some vocational training. We want to see these children understand that they have talents and aptitudes, to see that life has purpose and that they can make a meaningful contribution to society as well as making a living for themselves.
Adaptive Equipment Project
In Kyrgyzstan, children with special needs have been unable to leave their rooms and participate in family and community life. This project aims to provide adaptive equipment produced from local resources, along with training, to assist families with these children.
Therapeutic Horse Riding Project
The Kyrgyz people pride themselves on their horsemanship. However, children with disabilities have not been able to participate in this aspect of the culture. CDI’s horse-riding therapy project allows children with special needs to interact with animals and benefit from skeletal-muscular exercise.
Vocational Training Project
The Vocational and Career Development Project provides funds and other opportunities for educational, vocational and recreational activities for children living at Svetli Put and other adults with disabilities living in the Bishkek area.
Rehab and Educational Center
Tokmok Rehab and Education Center – this takes aspects of the other sub projects such as education and physical therapy and implements them in the city of Tokmok with an emphasis on moving children into mainstream education.
Education South Kygryzstan
The project is designed to raise the awareness for education for children with disabilities in their families, in the community, in the schools and in other governmental educational institutions in the South of Kyrgyzstan. Children who wouldn’t get any education or children with needs that the traditional educational model cannot provide, are supported and helped so that they can follow the school program provided by the schools. A particular focus is laid on the formal and practical formation of specialists in the sphere of special needs education in the governmental school system.
Program Stories
Close Call During Horse Therapy Turns Into an Empowering Situation
Every day, children with a wide range of disabilities come to hippotherapy sessions to improve […]